The present invention is directed to a method for adjusting and fixing a lens in front of an optical-electronic semiconductor component so that they are optically coupled to one another as the component is arranged on a carrier and to the coupling arrangement manufactured by this method.
In opto-electronic transmission and/or reception modules having light waveguide transmission links for optical communication transmission, there are problems in optically coupling the opto-electronic semiconductor component to a light waveguide in a desire way. The coupling of the opto-electronic component and a monomode or multi-mode fiber will occur via a beam-free optics in a module having at least one lens. Given this employment, a lens in the submicrometer region, i.e. having an adjustment tolerance of &lt;0.2 .mu.m, must be fine-adjusted and fixed in front of the opto-electronic semiconductor component, which may be, for example, a laser diode.
It is known for manufacturing such coupling arrangements to arrange, for example, a light waveguide having a hemispherical termination or a lens, for example a spherical lens, on a carrier of, for example, silicon, and to adjust it in a liquid solder relative to the component. Such an arrangement is shown in U.S. Pat. No. 4,741,796, which is based on the same German Application as EP-A-0 204 224.
The adjustment of lenses, of spherical lenses preferably employed for this purpose for cost reasons, as well, however, is difficult in the liquid material. Moreover, the solidity of such a connection after cooling and solidification of the solder is not always guaranteed, particularly in view of the required durability of such an optical coupling arrangement that is especially sensitive to mechanical stresses.